NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday denounced China for releasing an official “standard map” which includes Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin region as part of its territory.
Dismissing China’s move as an “old habit”, Jaishankar said that just by including other countries’ terroritories in a map does not change anything.
Speaking to a TV channel, the minister said that China has often put out maps claiming territories that are not theirs. “It is an old habit. Just by putting out maps with parts of India … this doesn’t change in anything,” he said.
Jaishankar added that making “absurd claims” does not make other people’s territories your own.
The map was released by China’s ministry of natural resources during the celebration of Surveying and Mapping Publicity Day and the National Mapping Awareness Publicity Week on Monday in Deqing county, Zhejiang province, as per China Daily newspaper.
India has often lashed out at China for making territorial claims over Arunachal. Earlier, the Modi government strongly criticised China for “renaming” 11 places in the hill state.
China claims Arunachal as part of its territory, an assertion that India has rubbished repeatedly.